The Big Business of Burying Carbon

If you believe our efforts to cool the planet (or at least stop warming it) are futile, read on. Port Arthur, TX, home to the largest petroleum refinery in North America, is now a targeted region for a massive commercial dumping ground for CO2—yes, a place to compress and bury it, safely—for good. The idea is that major emitters will hoover up their own carbon waste, then pay to have it compressed into liquid and injected back down, safely, and permanently, into the same types of rocks it came from—carbon capture and sequestration on a scale unprecedented around the globe, large enough to put a real dent in climate change. By some estimates, there’s enough suitable rock on Earth to lock away centuries’ worth of CO2 emissions, past and future. Suddenly, amid surging global concerns about the climate crisis, some of the biggest names in the petroleum industry are jumping in. Talk about innovative thinking! Continue reading to follow the science behind this ‘groundbreaking’ discovery.